User Position Detection Using Home Appliance Acoustic Triangulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Electronic apparatuses struggle to accurately identify the position of a user due to environmental noise, obstacles, and reflections, leading to inefficient movement and potential privacy violations in sensitive spaces.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus employs a microphone to receive user voices, communicates with home appliances to request and analyze sound information, uses inaudible sounds to triangulate positions, and integrates a camera for image recognition, enabling precise user location determination.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the electronic apparatus uses a single microphone to detect user voice, then the device complexity is low, but the position identification accuracy is poor due to environmental noise and reflections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple microphones (first microphone and second microphone) into a single electronic apparatus to improve position identification accuracy. The multiple microphones capture sound information from different positions, enabling the system to distinguish between direct user voice and reflected noise through spatial analysis, thereby resolving the contradiction between accuracy and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary that receives sound information from multiple microphones and processes it to identify user position. The server acts as a mediator that coordinates the multiple microphones and home appliances, centralizing the complex signal processing tasks and allowing the electronic apparatus to maintain relatively simple structure while achieving high accuracy through distributed sensing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the electronic apparatus moves through multiple spaces in a house, then the versatility and functionality are improved, but the risk of privacy violation in sensitive spaces increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the electronic apparatus receives indication information from home appliances about their operational states and uses this feedback to determine whether to proceed to specific spaces. The system continuously monitors the environment and adjusts its movement based on real-time information, stopping or redirecting when approaching privacy-sensitive areas, thus balancing versatility with privacy protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies preliminary action by having the electronic apparatus receive indication information from home appliances before entering certain spaces. The system performs advance assessment of the environment and obtains permission or confirmation before moving to privacy-sensitive areas, preventing potential privacy violations before they occur rather than responding after the fact.
3Measurement precision
If the electronic apparatus uses multiple home appliances for sound information, then the position identification accuracy is improved, but the communication and coordination complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the server a universal coordinator that handles communication with multiple types of home appliances (air conditioner, refrigerator, washing machine, etc.). The server provides standardized interfaces for receiving sound information from diverse appliances, abstracting the complexity of individual appliance communications and enabling accurate position identification through multi-source data fusion without increasing the complexity at the electronic apparatus level.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances user position identification accuracy, reduces movement inefficiencies, and ensures controlled navigation in privacy-sensitive areas by leveraging multiple sensors and communication with home appliances.
Implementation Method 1
a microphone; based on a preset user voice of a user being received through the microphone
Implementation Method 2
output an inaudible sound through the speaker based on a preset event occurring, receive, through the communication interface, at least one second sound information corresponding to the inaudible sound from the at least one home appliance, and identify a position of the at least one home appliance based on a position of the electronic apparatus outputting the inaudible sound and the at least one second sound information
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is an electronic apparatus comprising a microphone, a communication interface, a memory, and at least one processor to control the electronic apparatus. The processor may execute at least one instruction stored in the memory to: based on a preset user voice of a user being received through the microphone, control the communication interface to request at least one first sound information from at least one home appliance, each of the at least one first sound information corresponding to the preset user voice received at each of the at least one home appliance, receive, through the communication interface, the at least one first sound information from the at least one home appliance, and identify a position of the user based on the preset user voice and the at least one first sound information.